Fred Bedik thought that he was giving his wife, Vicki, an impossible challenge when he presented her with his checklist of requirements for buying a home in Thousand Oaks. It was 1972 and he wanted an older house on a dirt road, in a nonconformist neighborhood, with a fireplace and a modern kitchen. A lot to expect from a suburb filled with tract homes. "He figured I'd never find it," Vicki Bedik said, sitting in her book-filled living room in Ventu Park. "Three days."

To improve economic and social conditions in cities, local decision makers are constantly looking for ways to stimulate job growth. What policy makers desire most are strategies that result in high-wage employment opportunities with minimum adverse environmental consequences such as air pollution and traffic. Programs designed to reduce unemployment in inner-city locations are, of course, particularly desirable.

October 23, 1994 | PEGGY CLAY, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES; Clay is a Los Angeles free-lance writer. and

In 1912, Leslie C. Brand, a Glendale founding father, was famous for the lavish celebrity fly-in parties he threw at his mansion. The private planes landed on Kenneth Road and taxied up El Miradero toward his estate. Today, El Miradero no longer serves as an airstrip but is a residential street lined with well-kept homes. The Brand estate is now a park and the mansion is an art and music library. They are the centerpiece of the surrounding community, Brand Park.

Want to end the Labor Day weekend on a good old-fashioned note--literally? The Conejo Pops Orchestra is giving a free outdoor concert Monday at Conejo Community Park in Thousand Oaks. Show time is 5 p.m. This is a chance to bring a blanket and stretch out under the park's giant oak trees and listen to old and new show tunes and even a patriotic march or two. The orchestra, which is part of the Conejo Symphony Orchestra, has been offering the summer pops concert for close to 25 years.

Raul Ramirez and dozens of other children on Saturday claimed Loma Verde Park as their own. "It's ours now--the kids'," declared Raul, 7, who joined about 70 other volunteers who spent the day raking leaves and painting over graffiti on Loma Verde's basketball court. The children were at the park courtesy of El Campo, one of the city's largest street gangs.

The City Council, in a move that angered some residents, agreed this week to let a financially troubled developer renege on a promise to construct a neighborhood park by year's end in Anaheim Hills. In a 4-0 vote Tuesday, the council permitted the Baldwin Co. to renovate roughly one-third of a 13-acre park site by February, 1995. Under the compromise struck last week by residents, city officials and the developer, the Baldwin Co. would still be required to complete the park by January, 1997.

Despite opposition from artisans, the Covina City Council has voted to relocate a 22-year-old weekend arts and crafts show from tree-shaded Covina Park to the exposed asphalt of Italia Street downtown, effective in January. Over the last year the council, city officials and an ad hoc committee have pondered where the Saturday arts show should be. The artisans want to stay put, saying the park is an ideal meeting place for townsfolk.

Simi Valley planners on Wednesday approved a development permit for the proposed $4.3-million Corriganville Park on the city's east end, clearing the way for park district officials to apply for federal and state grants to pay for construction. The Planning Commission voted 4 to 0 to approve the permit, but instructed its staff to draft a set of guidelines that would help control special events held at the park. The commission will consider the guidelines at its meeting next week.

Citing concerns about added traffic and noise at the east end of Simi Valley, the city's Planning Commission on Wednesday postponed approving a permit to develop a community park on the former Corriganville movie ranch. The commissioners said they wanted more information about the effect of traffic, noise, parking and bright lights on an adjacent residential neighborhood.